"Why weren't you at dinner last night Percy?" Ginny Weasley was sitting behind him, doing the best she could to spot him while he lifted repeatedly, noisily expelling air with each contraction.
"Why do you care?" asked Percy sullenly, replacing the weight and releasing his muscles. Ginny just looked at him crossly.
"Percy Weasley, that was a thoroughly childish thing to say." Ginny handed him the towel.
"Well, I left after Fred and George got me sacked." Percy wiped his face and tried to remain calm as he reiterated his point again.
"Do shutup Percy, you haven't been sacked yet."
"But I will," said Percy with absolute certainty, "Four weeks of work down the drain… Crouch will never stand for it."
"Bah… Crouch.. sounds like Crotch." Ginny wrinkled her nose, "and if you get sacked that will forever be my highest opinion of him." Ginny pulled a chair up to the bench and sat down near Percy. "Have you bothered to talk to Fred and George about it?"
"It's five o'clock in the morning Ginny."
"Well I thought you might have talked to them last night." Ginny shrugged.
"I didn't come home until well after they'd gone to bed." Percy tried to seem nonchalant about this, though he knew this abnormal behavior was what Ginny was after.
"Which," Ginny seized the opportunity, "coincidentally, is what I asked you about in the first place."
"I walked around angry for a bit, and lost my direction." Percy sat up from the bench and stretched.
"And it took you four hours to find a fireplace?" said Ginny. Percy glared at Ginny. "Come on Percy," Ginny pleaded. "You know I can keep a secret."
"Oh really?" said Percy, beginning to become exasperated. Ginny glared at him and gestured to the room itself.
About a year and a half before, Percy had been spending a rather boring summer at home by himself. He hadn't yet started working at the ministry, and found that without school he had nothing to do, apart from reading the Daily Prophet. So while the rest of his family was either at work or out playing Quidditch, Percy explored his house, or rather, his basement and attic, neither location having originally been of much interest to him.
One afternoon, he discovered an at home gym set of sorts, weights, a press, that sort of thing. He imagined it was something Bill or Charlie had picked up with the idea of improving their Quidditch skills, or impressing a girl… something of that sort. For Percy, it presented itself as a diversion. So, with nothing better to do, Percy dragged the entire monstrosity down to the basement, with the help of the attic ghoul, who seemed more than happy to get it out of his way.
Percy spent time repairing the set, working out how to use it, traveling to a library in London every now and then to read up on the subject, knowing somehow that if he didn't he'd end up hurting himself.
And finally, he took great care to get up very early in the morning, before anyone else, to go down to the basement and lift. He had to keep it a secret. Bill and Charlie might decide they want it back. Ron would want to use it. Fred and George would tease Percy, and then destroy it. And so every morning he'd lift, then go back upstairs and get back in his pajamas, and pretend to sleep until breakfast.
But then one morning, near the end of August, he'd gone down at five in the morning to find Ginny waiting for him.
She admonished him, much like Mrs. Weasley would have, for lifting without someone to spot him. And then she said she'd keep his dirty little secret if she could come down and spot him every morning.
And so it became ritual for Percy and Ginny. Percy had never had a friend like her, and looked forward to it every night upon going to sleep. Percy would lift, and Ginny would talk, and sometimes they'd both talk, and they'd fill up the morning with secrets and troubles and joys. And then they'd have something to share at the breakfast table every morning.
"Nothing secret about it Ginny, I got lost," said Percy shortly. Somehow, as much as he wanted to tell someone, he didn't think it was the right time to profess to Ginny that he'd found a woman he wanted to….
Well, truth be told he didn't even know what he wanted, except to see her again… very much.
"You're really buffing up Percy. If you'd wear something a bit less on the concealing side you'd really impress the male members of this household." Ginny grinned mischeviously.
"You of all people know, Ginny," said Percy, throwing on a shirt, "that I have no interest whatsoever in impressing any of the male members of this family… c'ept Dad of course, and I doubt I'll be able to do that with a large torso."
"Large isn't the word I'd use to describe it Perce…." Said Ginny tactfully. "I've no doubt that you're most likely the most attractive member of this family with their shirt off… c'ept me of course but that's a tad inappropriate don't you think."
Percy just stared for a moment. "Yeah," he said finally, "I suppose inappropriate would be the best way to describe it."
"I don't know why you bother combing your sweaty hair when you're just going to hop back in bed anyhow." Said Ginny.
"Call it habit then." Percy put the comb down and began cleaning off the bench press. "I need a focus, Gin, this is my focus. It's one of the only physical things I do anymore and it's improved my work performance."
"Oh good. We should always be striving to improve our already spotless work record." Ginny's sarcasm was not lost on Percy.
"With Fred and George around?" Percy stared at Ginny.
"Good point, forget I said that." Ginny helped Percy stack the free weights.
"Eh… time for bed." Said Percy. Ginny smiled. It was one of their ongoing jokes.
"Right then… goodnight Percy."
And they crept silently to bed. Percy removed his t-shirt and buttoned up his pajama top and crawled under the covers, savouring the last few bits of silence he would get today. He'd have to ask Fred and George about salvaging his job today. Would they help him? Would they understand what a disaster it would be if Percy were sacked?
He awoke about two hours later feeling a tad uneasy, but nevertheless went downstairs at his usual time, yawning and stretching on cue, though it really wasn't necessary.
"Oh look, it's Mr. Boring." Fred said smugly as Percy sat down across the table from him.
"Honestly Fred, you would think someone as interesting as you would be able to come up with something more interesting to say," said Ginny thoughtfully, picking up an orange from the bowl and rolling it across the table to Percy, who grabbed it and smiled gratefully at Ginny.
Breakfast passed uneventfully, for the Weasley household. The only incident occurred when Mr. Weasley reached for a strip of bacon, only to discover that it became a rubber chicken when he touched it. Mr. Weasley found the whole incident quite amusing, while Mrs. Weasley took the rubber chicken and started beating George over the head with it, until George turned it back into a piece of bacon.
Percy, receiving glares from Ginny who knew he was procrastinating, offered to help Mrs. Weasley clean up after breakfast. She graciously turned him down, and he was left with no alternative, but to go up to Fred and George's room and discuss his ruined work.
He opened the door cautiously, afraid something would explode. Fred and George looked rather surprised to see him, which boosted his confidence a bit. He closed the door behind him.
"Fred, George," he nodded respectively, and they looked at each other. "We need to talk."